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“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. <\/strong><\/em>On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.\u201d\n<\/strong>
\n<\/em>~ Mahatma Gandhi<\/p>\n
As those of you who have read Lead From The Heart <\/em>already know, throughout my entire childhood, I had the perverse experience of routinely being told I would end up a failure in life.<\/p>\n Through repeated and profoundly destructive interactions with my father, I was taught to believe that I fundamentally lacked.<\/p>\n My father\u2019s influence, of course, had the effect of deeply undermining my self-confidence. It made me doubt my capabilities and talents, and fearfully approach most new things.<\/p>\n How I overcame my great deficiency in self-belief had much to do with other people who came into my life \u2013 friends, teachers and coaches \u2013 who saw things differently and made a distinct point of insisting that I actually had much to offer. \u00a0In the context of all I was hearing at home, these words of encouragement gave me far more empowering views of myself, ones that inspired me to reach, to pursue greater challenges and to overcome my feelings of inadequacy.<\/p>\n When I later entered business and first became a manager of people, I made a surprising observation: the far majority of employees working for me had self-defeating doubts about how talented and capable they <\/em>truly were. \u00a0Many consistently underestimated their full human potential.<\/p>\n Guessing that few of them had anything close to the upbringing I had \u2013 and that their parents likely did all they could to build up their self-esteem \u2013 I soon came to understand that fear and doubt are a part of the human condition.<\/p>\n In a peculiar way, I also realized I’d been groomed to help people transcend their unfounded limitations. \u00a0I knew instinctively that if I took on the role of being my teams’ chief confidence builder, great achievements would assuredly follow. And, they did.<\/p>\n What I know for certain is that people have far greater potential than they often see in themselves. Leaders who not only understand this, but seek out ways to draw it out, will be the ones who will rule the world.<\/p>\n If you’d like to get started building up the confidence of your team, here are four great ways to get started:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Treat Your Employees Like Winners (Even If They\u2019re Not Yet Winning)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n As Rosabeth Moss Kanter wrote in her book, Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin And End, <\/em>\u201cthere\u2019s a well-documented relationship between expectations and performance that\u2019s at the heart of self-confidence.\u201d In other words, you can elevate an entire team\u2019s performance simply by setting the same high expectations for everyone.<\/p>\n In repeated studies where teachers were told their class was filled with \u201cgifted\u201d students (and, unbeknownst to them, all had been randomly selected), the kids’ academic performance soared.<\/p>\n According to Kanter, \u201cthinking that someone is a potential high-performer encourages leaders and colleagues to look more closely at them, to invest more time and to find the positives in them.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Ensure You Routinely Convey The Importance Of The Work Your Team Does<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n When people fully understand how their efforts affect the success of the organization \u2013 and that their work is inherently important and significant \u2013 they will stretch themselves to excel.\u00a0 Deep down, every human alive wants and needs to know the job they perform matters<\/em>. \u00a0Consequently, leaders who routinely take time to explain how employees individually<\/em> make a difference\u00a0consistently produce highly confident and motivated teams.<\/p>\n 3. \u00a0 \u00a0Re-express Your Confidence When Results Aren\u2019t There<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The expression \u201csales beating<\/em>,\u201d as a description of a sales meeting <\/em>they just attended, was coined by some poor employee whose boss panicked under the stress of underperformance and let everyone on the team have it.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve all worked for managers who freaked out under pressure and unwittingly decimated the spirits of the very people whose motivation he or she desparately needed.<\/p>\n The test of a leader\u2019s true character, therefore, is whether they\u2019re capable of sustaining the self-confidence and demeanor of a winning team even when the scoreboard suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n